


By Any Other Name

by angeltrumpets



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, CCG Nagachika Hideyoshi, Kaneki Ken as Sasaki Haise, M/M, Misunderstandings, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tokyo Ghoul: re, mix between canon setting/circumstances and AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14242260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeltrumpets/pseuds/angeltrumpets
Summary: Ken Kaneki.The characters that made up that name were tattooed on Hide's chest, telling him the person that was his soulmate. In his twenty-two years of living, Hide had yet to meet someone by the name of Ken Kaneki.Someone Hide does meet however is named Haise Sasaki.





	1. Chapter 1

Ken Kaneki.

Every day, Hide would see and read the characters that made up that name. They were tattooed in black, located in the middle of his chest, over his sternum. Easily noticeable if Hide didn’t have a shirt on. Not that Hide needed to look at his tattoo to remind himself what the tattoo looked like, since it had been there for as long as he could remember. His tattoo, the characters that were written into his skin, told him the name of the person that was his soulmate.  

In Hide’s twenty-two years of living, he had yet to meet someone by the name of Ken Kaneki.

He didn’t consider it a huge concern just yet. Sure, there were plenty of people his age who had met their soulmate by now, but there were also plenty of people who hadn’t. Hide was still young, and there would still be plenty of opportunities that would arise in which he could meet his soulmate. He was sure he would, otherwise why would the tattoo be there at all? Hide’s soulmate was out there somewhere; it was just a matter of when and where Ken Kaneki would come into his life.

Hide stood in front of his bathroom mirror, tracing the tattoo with his finger. He had to admit though, having his soulmate be around by now would be nice. The element of surprise of how one’s soulmate would show up was an intriguing aspect, but after long enough, Hide felt he’d just be happy to skip ahead to the part where he and his soulmate would already be together.

He wondered what the routine would be on a morning like this if there were another person living in his apartment with him. Hide’s job at the CCG meant that he had to wake up early, but what about his soulmate? Would Hide’s soulmate also have to wake up early and get ready for the day together with Hide? Or would Hide be getting ready for work as Ken Kaneki remained peacefully asleep?

Hide sighed and leaned over the sink, splashing his face with water to wake himself up properly. He wasn’t usually this sentimental about his soulmate. It was probably because the subject had come up yesterday at work, when Seidou had confided to Hide about his situation with Akira, that Hide was thinking more about it today than he usually would.

Hide went into his room to get dressed and ready for the day. The clothes he wore for his job at the CCG were the most proper and least bright out of his entire wardrobe, but unfortunately he didn’t have much of a choice, especially now that the expectations for how he dressed for work were stricter than they had ever been for him.

Once Hide was dressed, he made himself a cup of coffee and took it with him as he left the apartment and headed for work. Hide made a face as he sipped at his coffee; it was much too bitter again. He definitely had a lot to improve on when it came to his skills in coffee making. He might’ve been able to make better coffee if he were to actually take the time to figure out exactly what he was doing wrong and work on it, but he didn’t have that kind of time. Maybe from now on he’d have to purchase coffee at a café or somewhere on his way to work. There were a few that he’d walk past in the 1st Ward on his way to the CCG Headquarters which would probably be worth checking out.

Hide had by now gotten used to the formality and size of the CCG Headquarters, although it had been quite daunting at first after coming from the 20th Ward’s Branch Office. Not only had the 20th Ward been relatively peaceful, but the extent of Hide’s responsibilities there as an intern was deliveries and other such menial jobs, until Hide had moved to the 1st Ward Headquarters along with Akira and Amon after getting promoted by Marude to work alongside them.  Now at Headquarters, he would also sometimes work alongside Marude himself, as Marude had taken note of Hide’s intuition and had decided that Hide could be of significant use within the CCG’s intelligence.   

As Hide entered the towering building, he went through the security gates without any issues and made his way through the ground floor to head to the elevators, nodding his head in respect whenever he walked past one of the higher ranked investigators. Which there were a lot of in the main headquarters. Although Hide had gotten used to almost everything else about the CCG Headquarters, he still couldn’t help the slight unease he would feel when walking past a particularly highly regarded investigator or squad.

Once Hide reached the elevators and went up to his allocated floor of the building, he was able to let himself relax. He was familiar with the investigators that worked here, and the atmosphere was much less tense then it was on the entry floor. Hide made his way towards his desk, which was located next to where Akira’s and Amon’s were. It was a smaller desk than the others. After all, his experience and training paled in comparison to every other investigator who had entered the CCG through the Academy; he had just been the rare exception to have been promoted to an investigator from the very bottom. Not to mention that even if Hide did get the chance to have an input on an important case every now and then through Marude, he was still technically of a lower position than Akira and Amon.

Amon was already there when Hide arrived, sitting at his desk and looking over files with a frown, while Akira was nowhere to be seen.

“Good morning, Amon,” Hide greeted. “Is Akira around?”

Amon looked up from the files at the sound of Hide’s voice. “Good morning,” he said. “Akira is in a meeting relating to her squad right now.”

The Quinx Squad. Hide didn’t know much about them, only that they had been assigned to Akira a fair while ago yet they still struggled to successfully function together, or barely even at all, which resulted in a general disapproval of them amongst the CCG. He had a vague idea of the Quinx as being experimental investigators, but he had never seen any of them himself.

Hide sat down at his desk, which already had multiple files laid out on top of it. If he were to be entirely honest, he found this investigative aspect of work, figuring out relations between ghoul targets and the reasons behind each move, much more preferable than the process of actually going out and apprehending ghouls. Unlike the vast majority of those who worked around him, Hide had no such grudge or hatred against ghouls at all, nor any strong feelings towards ideals of justice that were held by some investigators.

This mindset of his wasn’t an issue when it came to the sort of work he had in the CCG, not that he ever said it out loud. When it was not one of the special occasions where he was involved in assisting Marude with a higher profile case or with an operation, Hide was usually left with the kind of work that was passed over from those above him. Such work included basic filing and recording of information, some of which related to older or cold cases.

One such case that Amon had left on Hide’s desk were the files relating to that of the Rabbit. The Rabbit case had been worked on by Amon long ago when he and Hide were back in the 20th Ward, but since the target seemed to have ceased activity for a little over a year, the case was considered low priority and put aside.

Hide looked up from his desk when he heard distant voices approaching from the nearby corridor. As the voices began to get closer, Hide was able to identify one of them as Akira’s, which was confirmed when she entered the room.

Walking in from behind Akira was another investigator. 

It was an investigator Hide hadn’t seen before. Based off the way he was speaking to Akira, not to mention how he was only slightly taller than Akira unlike the majority of the CCG’s men who towered over her, he seemed to be about Hide’s age. It was hard to be sure though, since he had a roundness to his face that made him look younger. One of the most striking features about the man however was his hair, which was predominantly white with a patch of black at the roots, and fell in short waves that framed his face. The clothes he wore matched his hair’s colour scheme, with a black shirt and black pinstripe pants underneath the distinct black and white CCG coat.

Hide couldn’t hear everything the investigator and Akira said to each other, but he watched as they finished their conversation and the man faced Akira directly. The man was holding his arms out, a request for a hug from Akira.

Hide could only dream of being so bold with Akira.

Hide could also only dream of Akira actually accepting the hug as she brushed off the other investigator’s offered hug with a quick “No way”. The other investigator didn’t seem too fussed by the rejected hug, shrugging and letting his arms down as Akira turned away from him and walked towards her desk.

“Bye Akira,” the investigator said before also turning to walk away.

As he made his way from Akira to leave the floor, his path took him in the direction of Hide’s desk.  

“Better luck next time,” Hide said to the investigator as he was walking past.

The investigator paused by Hide’s desk, and Hide received an amused grin from him in response. From this closer distance, Hide could notice the investigator’s round, grey eyes, as well as the way the waves of his hair fell nicely over his forehead.

After the investigator continued to walk away, Hide waited until there was a bit more distance between him and the other man before getting up from his desk and going over to Akira.

“Akira,” Hide said, nodding towards the investigator walking away. “Who was that?”

Akira looked over in the direction Hide had nodded.  

“Haise Sasaki, Rank 1 Investigator and mentor to the Quinx within my squad,” Akira answered. “You didn’t know of him?”

Hide followed Akira’s gaze back towards the investigator, Haise Sasaki.

“I guess I might have heard his name in passing before, but I’ve never actually seen him in person until now.”

Hide kept watching Haise Sasaki until he turned the corner and went out of sight.

* * *

When Hide left for work the next day, he decided not to attempt to make a morning coffee this time, choosing to start purchasing better coffee on his way to work instead of rushing to make a subpar one at home.

He had no plan as to exactly where he would buy his morning coffee. He hadn’t bothered to research the local coffee shops for indications of service quality or price difference; he just decided he’d see how he felt at the time and then go to whichever one that happened to be.

On his walk through the 1st Ward, Hide decided to divert from his regular route, as the cafés that he usually saw along there were busier than he would’ve liked. As expected, his alternate route had much less people around. The only reason he didn’t take this route regularly was because of the added time and distance it would take to get to work. However, he could see himself walking through this area daily if he found something worth changing his regular route for.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hide caught sight of something that piqued his interest. In the distance, he could spot what looked to be a café, based off the set-up of small tables he could see through the windows. It seemed to be a good place to try for today. Hide approached the café, stopping once he reached the front of it to read the sign that had been placed there. Written on the sign was “:re”, which Hide assumed to be the name of the café. He briefly wondered how it was supposed to be pronounced before giving up and just hoping he would never have to say the name of the café out loud.

He pushed open the door to the café, a small bell over the door lightly ringing as he entered. He was overwhelmed by the comforting smell of warm coffee as he walked inside and closed the door behind him. As it was early in the morning, there were very few people around. The young woman at the coffee machine near the counter seemed to be the only person who was working at the café, and there were only two lone customers sitting at tables. Plus one other customer that was standing at the counter near the young barista.  

A customer who was wearing a very distinct CCG coat, matching their equally as distinct hair.

What were the chances that the café Hide chose to go out of his way for would be the one Haise Sasaki was in?

Hide headed straight for the counter to the investigator without even looking at what the menu options at the café were.

“Hi,” Hide greeted as he reached the counter.

The investigator quickly turned to face Hide, eyes widened from being spoken to all of a sudden.

“You’re Haise Sasaki, right?” Hide asked.

Hide saw the slight tension that made its way to Haise Sasaki’s shoulders. “Y-Yes?” he said, brow furrowing.

“I wanted to introduce myself to you properly,” said Hide. “My name’s Hideyoshi Nagachika!”

Haise didn’t immediately respond. He stood frozen for a long moment, staring at Hide. His eyes flickered with something Hide couldn’t quite identify. Recognition, he assumed it was.

“O-oh!” Haise gasped. “You’re-!”

“The investigator on Akira’s floor from yesterday!” Hide finished with a grin.  “You can call me Hide though.”

“Hide,” Haise repeated softly, the tension in his shoulders relaxing as he gave Hide a smile. It was much different from the brief grin Hide had seen from him the day before. This smile was much warmer, and it lit up Haise’s whole face, making his eyes sparkle. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

Hide then became very aware of the fact that he and Haise weren’t the only ones who were standing by the counter. The barista Hide had seen by the coffee machine earlier had approached the opposite side of the counter, and was holding freshly made coffee in a disposable cup.

“Here you go,” she said to Haise, holding out the cup for him to take.

“Thank you, Touka-chan,” Haise said as he took his coffee.

Haise must be a regular here if he was familiar with the barista.

The young woman then turned to Hide. “Can I get you anything?” she asked him.

Hide regretted not having spared a single glance to the menu since entering. “Ahh… I’ll have one cappuccino to go, please,” he answered quickly so as to not keep the barista or Haise waiting. He’d get the chance to choose properly from the menu another day.

After Hide had paid for his coffee, the young woman went to make it as Hide focused his attention back towards Haise.  

“Sorry if I startled you earlier by suddenly coming up to you like that, Sasaki” he laughed nervously.

“It’s alright,” said Haise, shaking his head. He smiled again. “I understand. And please, you can definitely call me Haise.”

Haise took some sips of his coffee. Hide noted that the coffee he had been served was black, yet Haise hadn’t added anything to it before drinking it. Unlike Hide, the bitter taste of black coffee didn’t seem to bother him.  

“You work under Akira, yes?” Haise asked Hide, breaking the brief lull that had occurred when he drank.  

“Yeah, under her and also crossing over into the Intelligence Branch” said Hide. “Apparently you work under Akira too?”

Haise nodded as he took another sip.

“Is it odd that I hadn’t seen you around before until yesterday?” Hide wondered.  

Haise sighed, his gaze dropping to the counter. “I’m often busy with matters involving my squad, so that could be a reason why we haven’t run into each other before. It’s a shame…” He looked up to meet Hide’s eyes. “I would’ve liked to have had the chance to meet you earlier.”

Haise hesitated before he began to speak again.

“Hide, I was wondering if-”

Haise suddenly stopped talking as they were approached by the barista again, who had finished making Hide’s coffee.

“Here’s your cappuccino,” she said, placing the cup on the counter in front of Hide.

“Thank you!” Hide said as he took his cup.

“If you don’t mind,” the barista spoke again, her voice gentle. “There’s someone else that I’d like to serve.”

Hide looked behind him to see that another customer was standing behind him and Haise. How long the customer had been standing there, Hide didn’t know. He hadn’t even heard the customer approach.

“Oh, sorry,” Hide apologised, stepping away from the counter.

“Please, excuse us,” Haise said to the customer, following suit.

As Hide walked away from the counter, he took a sip from his coffee. His eyes widened and he stopped in his tracks when he was hit with the taste. Hide’s own overly bitter, homemade coffee was a complete joke in comparison to this. He hadn’t even added any sugar to this, yet between the well-brewed coffee that was evidently of good quality, as well as the perfect amount of froth and milk, the flavour was perfect enough that there was no need for any sugar.

“Whoa!” Hide exclaimed. “This is really good!”

This café had definitely been a good choice. For more than one reason.

“Oh,” Hide said, turning to Haise, who was still standing by him. “What was it that you were about to ask before?”

Haise blinked. “Ah,” he said. “I was going to ask if you would be willing to go to Headquarters together.”

Hide paused in his sipping of his coffee. Haise’s tone had been calm, but his eyes were displaying a more hopeful intention beneath. Hide couldn’t help the small feeling of delight at how Haise was responding to him since he introduced himself. It wasn’t often that Hide came across an investigator that was friendly, or at the very least not intimidating.

“Sure!” Hide replied.

Haise gestured towards the door as an invitation to begin heading off. They started to walk towards the door together, Haise turning to wave a last goodbye to the barista and thanking her again before leaving. The barista looked up from her serving of the customer she was with to wave back and watch as they left.

Haise was the one to reach the door of the café first, opening it and holding it open on the other side for Hide to walk through. Hide thanked him with a grateful smile.

“So,” Hide said once the door had closed and they were standing in front of the café. “Which way do you head to Headquarters from here?”

“There’s actually a shortcut to Headquarters nearby,” Haise said. “It’s the path I take every morning after coming here.”

“Lead the way, then!”

As Hide walked along with Haise, he paid close attention to the directions he was being led in.

After all, he needed to know exactly where to go if this was to be his new regular route.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea for this fic originally came to mind from when a prompt I received for the TG Valentine Exchange 2018 on Tumblr mentioned "the soulmate name tattoo au". At the time, I wrote a oneshot with this concept for my giftee, [nerdsmcgee](https://nerdsmcgee.tumblr.com/), but the full idea I had was more suited for a much longer fic. So that's what this is, and it's dedicated to them.


	2. Chapter 2

It started to become a routine that Hide would look forward to every morning.

He would wake up at a slightly earlier time than he had used to, get ready for work, and then head out of his apartment while his coffee machine did nothing but collect dust on his kitchen bench. He really needed to figure out what he was going to do with that machine, since it’s not like he was going to be using it again anytime soon.

When walking through the 1st Ward, Hide would divert from the main path and onto the route that had become the regular, heading directly to the café. Upon reaching the café, he would walk in, hear the bell jingle as he entered, and immediately direct his eyes to the front counter, where Haise would already be there having his coffee and more often than not be in conversation with the barista. After greeting Haise, as well as the barista, and getting his coffee, they would head off to work together.

It had become an unspoken yet mutual agreement after about a week of this that walking to work together had become the daily routine.

Hide didn’t really consider anyone in the CCG, or anyone out of the CCG either for that matter, to be a proper friend of his. There were acquaintances he knew from school and university, but none that he actively kept in touch with, so those had fallen away long ago. Amon and Akira were too much his work superiors for them to be considered friends. Seidou was probably the closest person to what Hide would call a friend in the CCG, but even that would be a stretch. Their relationship consisted of Seidou complaining about whatever his newest problem was, while Hide would listen with varying degrees of interest and occasionally give Seidou a word of advice that he may or may not take. Hide didn’t actually dislike it, since Seidou provided him with company and amusement at work and there wasn’t anyone else at the CCG Hide ever spoke to, but it was not what he would call a balanced, fulfilling friendship.

Haise of the other hand… Haise was different from Seidou.

Haise seemed to take an actual interest in Hide as a person, and was actually willing to get to know him. He would greet Hide, and ask him how he was or what was going on with him, in a manner that came across as more genuine than mere small talk. With Haise, Hide could feel the balance that he lacked with Seidou. Conversations with Haise went both ways, with Haise willing to listen to what Hide was saying just as much as he spoke himself.

Haise was good company, and Hide would be lying if he said he wasn’t pleased with how they were getting along. Happy that he finally had someone he could see himself calling a friend.

Their conversations on their way to work had started off small and light, with frequent pauses in-between. Such pauses, oddly enough, hadn’t actually felt awkward as Hide had expected. Usually, Hide might have felt the need to fill in the gaps, but Haise didn’t seem to be bothered by silence, which put Hide at ease as well and made their walks to work comfortable, whether or not they were in conversation the whole way.

With each day they walked together, their conversations became longer, and Hide learned more about Haise bit by bit. Hide had come to understand a little more about the Quinx Squad that Haise was a part of. It turned out that Hide’s knowledge of them being experimental investigators had been correct, with Haise clarifying the details that Hide wasn’t sure about. Haise also filled Hide in on the Quinx members themselves, along with the fact that he lived with them. The Quinx were often a good subject to talk about with Haise, as there was always something new happening with at least one member, and Haise had plenty to say about each of them. He was happy to talk about the Quinx in fact, since it was clear that Haise was quite fond of them.

“You’ll definitely have to come over to the Chateau and meet the kids for yourself one of these days,” Haise had said.

“Didn’t you say that they were all almost 20 years old?”

“What’s your point?” Haise had countered with a grin.

The Quinx weren’t the only good topic to bring up with Haise.

Hide had learned of a particular interest of Haise’s after Haise had asked Hide what he liked to do in his spare time. After Hide had told him about his interest in music and English, he had asked Haise the same question, and it was if he could see a spark in Haise’s eyes as he responded that he was a reader. Hide had prompted him further, asking what he liked to read, and Haise’s manner became more enthusiastic than Hide had seen from him since they met. Hide didn’t have much knowledge about the literature Haise liked, nor much about literature in general, but luckily Haise hadn’t expected him to. Hide didn’t mind either that he didn’t understand what Haise talked about, since he didn’t need to have an understanding of what Haise was saying to enjoy the way Haise talked about it, full of passion and energy.

However, in talking with Haise, it hadn’t taken too long to notice what the more sensitive subjects were. And there were a few of them.

When Hide had asked Haise why he had gone into the CCG, Haise had averted his eyes and given a vague answer about being a special circumstance, without elaborating further. Hide had quickly jumped in by talking about his own special circumstance of entry into the CCG before the mood had the chance to properly decline.

He soon noticed that Haise reacted similarly to other topics, usually those that headed into personal territory. Matters relating to Haise’s history or experiences within the CCG seemed to be touchy areas, so Hide decided that it was easier to avoid bringing up personal topics altogether.

It was much better to talk about things that made Haise happy anyway. Haise when he was happy was always a delight to see, and Hide would gladly give Haise whatever space he needed, not prodding for more whenever he sensed the conversation heading in a direction out of Haise’s comfort.

When they weren’t talking about their favoured topics or asking varied questions to get to know each other better, they tended to talk about the café.

Hide was growing quite fond of the café itself. Although it turned out that Haise wasn’t sure how the name of it was supposed to be pronounced either, so he was still at a loss in that aspect. As Hide had hoped, he got the chance to look at the menu properly and try out other options, with the aim of one day having tried them all at least once.

Haise however never strayed from his regular order of black coffee. The barista never even needed to ask Haise what he wanted. From the second of Haise’s arrival to the café, she would be getting started on his black coffee. Hide couldn’t understand being satisfied with drinking black coffee every day, but Haise seemed to enjoy it.

Hide’s new daily appearances to the café also meant that he became acquainted with the barista that was there every day, whose name he had learned was Touka Kirishima. From what Hide saw of her interactions with Haise, she seemed to be a gentle person, but such gentleness wasn’t extended to Hide in the way it was to Haise however. Usually, Hide wouldn’t have questioned it. Touka and Haise seemed to have already had an established friendship before Hide started coming to the café, so of course she would treat them differently. However, Hide could have sworn he felt her observing gaze on him on more than one occasion, as if she were searching him.

After a couple of weeks with the new established routine of Hide arriving to the café with Haise already at the counter, Hide decided to sacrifice a precious extra snooze in the morning to show up at the café a little earlier.

As he had hoped, he had beaten Haise to the café, arriving when there was no-one around besides Touka, who was preparing the coffee machine.

“You’re here early,” she commented as Hide approached the counter.

Hide grinned. “I thought I’d change it up a bit today. Get here before Haise and be the one talking to you first.”

“Talk to me?” Touka eyed him.

“Well yeah,” Hide shuffled under her gaze. “You and Haise know each other well, right?”

“I wouldn’t say _well_ ,” she answered quickly, turning her eyes away from Hide to finish with getting the coffee machine ready, her fluffy hair covering the side of her face from Hide’s view. “He’s been coming to the café every day for quite a while now, so he’s probably my most regular customer at this point.”

“I’ve been seeing you two daily for enough time that I’m sure you know each other well enough,” said Hide.

“As much as one gets to know their regular customers, then yes,” Touka exhaled. “Fine, we know each other well enough.”

Hide leaned against the counter. “It would be nice if we could get to know each other too, wouldn’t it?”

Touka paused in her coffee machine preparation.

“Look,” she said. “I understand that you and Haise are getting along well and that you’re inevitably going to get closer. But I’m not going to be as quick to trust you just because I should.”

She turned to look directly at Hide, her hair drifting off of her face so that Hide could see both of her eyes.

“Someone’s got to be the more realistic one to make sure the guy doesn’t get himself hurt.”

Hide didn’t know how to respond as Touka maintained eye contact with him. What he did know was that he wasn’t about to point out how Haise was clearly not just Touka’s most regular customer. It was better not to challenge her insistence right now.

“You don’t have anything to worry about,” Hide said instead, not looking away from Touka’s eyes. “I don’t want the guy hurt either.” He hesitated before saying more. “If you’re a friend of Haise’s, I want to be a friend of yours too.”

Touka continued to look at Hide with her expression still guarded, but not as hard this time. After an extended silence, she turned back to the now ready coffee machine.

“What will it be today, Nagachika?” she said in an obvious push to move on.

Hide went along with her. “Hmmmmm…”

Despite having tried various other options since his first day, and his intention of trying the entire menu, he found that what he had ordered on the first day remained his favourite thus far. It didn’t stop Hide from dragging out his thinking for longer than necessary.

“A cappuccino please,” he said at last. “Touka-chan,” he added.

Touka lightly grumbled in a weak protest of the way Hide had addressed her, but didn’t say anything else on the matter as she went to make his coffee.

As Touka was making the coffee, Hide heard the sound of a bell lightly ringing from behind him.

He turned in time to see Haise entering the café. Haise’s eyes were scanning the café, and lit up when they landed on Hide. A smile appeared on his face and his pace picked up as he walked over to the counter.

“You’re here early!” Haise said in surprise when he reached Hide. “I’m not late am I? I hope you haven’t been waiting here for me too long.”

“It’s fine,” Hide said. “I decided to get here earlier today. Besides, I’ve been here getting more acquainted with Touka-chan.” He looked over his shoulder to grin at Touka.

Touka rolled her eyes at Hide as she placed Hide’s cappuccino down onto the counter and got automatically started on Haise’s regular black coffee.

Haise smiled. “That’s good to hear. I would really like it if you two got along.”

It took all of Hide's self-control to not send a glance towards Touka at that. It seemed Touka could tell Hide wanted to anyway, as she avoided looking at him and focused extra hard on the coffee she was making, which was unnecessary since it was just a simple black coffee.

Haise didn’t notice any of this and took his coffee from Touka once she was finished, thanking her as he did so.

“Bye, Touka-chan!” he said as they made their way out of the café.

“See ya, Touka-chan!” Hide called out from the doorway, catching the exasperated look she sent him just before he closed the door.

The air of the outside felt especially cold in comparison to the warmth of the café they had left. If Hide hadn’t been so focused on waking up earlier than usual to get to :re before Haise, he might have thought to bring a scarf at least.

“You were ok in there alone with Touka-chan?” Haise asked him as they began walking.

“Of course!” he answered. “It was good to talk to her.” That wasn’t a lie; Hide considered having had a conversation with her at all, as well as her letting him get away with calling her “Touka-chan”, a decent start.

“Even so, I feel a little bad keeping you waiting.”

“You had no way of knowing I was going to choose to show up earlier,” Hide pointed out.

“That’s true…”

There was a brief lull before Haise spoke again.

“That actually reminds me, Hide,” he said. “I meant to bring this up way before now, but we don’t have a way to easily contact each other do we?” He pulled out his phone from his pocket, waving it slightly. “Do you want to exchange numbers?”

Haise barely needed to ask. “Sure!” Hide responded.

Haise grinned and unlocked his phone to enter in a new contact while Hide took his own out from his pocket. Once his was also unlocked, he exchanged it with Haise’s so they could input their numbers in each other’s phones. Hide briefly contemplated coming up with something funny for his contact name, but saw that Haise finished entering his details before him, so he decided to settle for entering his regular nickname and a rabbit emoji before switching their phones back.

As they continued to walk to work, the streets became less empty as more people were waking up and heading to where they needed to go for the day. It wasn’t until Hide and Haise reached the end of their shortcut and went back onto the main route near Headquarters did it really become busy though.

Once they arrived at the CCG Headquarters, they both went into the elevator together. As Haise worked on a higher floor than Hide, Hide would be the first to step off. Upon reaching his floor, Hide gave Haise a wave before leaving.

Hide had just barely stepped away from the elevator and begun making his way over to his desk when his phone buzzed with a text.

**Have a good day~** it read, followed by a smiling emoji, the sender being Haise.

Hide laughed quietly to himself as he sat down at his desk, still looking at the text. While it wasn’t too surprising that Haise had texted him quickly, Hide hadn’t expected that to be at the first chance Haise had.

Hide was still grinning as he typed out a response. It was only once Hide noticed that Amon was looking over in his direction curiously that Hide realised he should probably put his phone away.

* * *

Hide found himself to be unusually distracted from work. There must have been a distinct lack of files and cases that were able to be passed on to him at that point in time, because nothing on his desk was particularly relevant or needed. Even the Rabbit case he had been given was largely unnecessary, since a brief skim of the first page of the file was enough to know that there had been zero signs of activity from the ghoul for an extended period of time. The ghoul was likely long gone or dead. There was a reason it was a cold case after all. Since there was really no point on working on that case for now, Hide put it into one of his desk drawers.

He was thankful once he got the opportunity for his lunch break. He left his desk and made his way to the cafeteria. It was relatively empty, which allowed Hide to sit at his preferred table on his own with the curry that was the day’s lunch.

However, he had barely been sitting down for five minutes to have his lunch break before his solitude was interrupted by Seidou approaching his table and seating himself ungracefully into the chair across from him without even a word in greeting. Not that any words were necessary for telling Hide what was up with him, since his thoughts were written all over his face in his cloudy expression.

Hide was almost amused at how open Seidou was about his soulmate issues and how easily he divulged them to Hide, especially since they weren’t particularly close. It was rare that someone would publicly bring up matters relating to their soulmate, especially considering how personal the very topic was. It wasn’t like Hide would ever directly ask anyone either, since it would seem pretty invasive if he did, so engaging with Seidou’s rants was really the only time Hide had been able to indulge in soulmate matters other than his own.

He was quite informed on Seidou’s soulmate situation by this point. That not only did he have Akira’s name written on his right shoulder, but he also had Amon’s written on his left.

Seidou Takizawa had two soulmates.

It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone to have more than one soulmate, but it was definitely not common. Soulmates could be difficult enough when there was just one to worry about. After all, just because the universe decided someone’s name was to be tattooed on a person’s skin, it didn’t do anything more than that. Fate may have bonded souls together, but it couldn’t do the work of the actual relationship in place of the people themselves.

That was a fact for everybody, but it was just an extra complicated step when there were more people involved, which was the case for Seidou and his two soulmates. Seidou seemed to have more trouble when it came to Akira however.

Last time Hide had spoken to Seidou, he had been filled in on the details of Seidou’s history with Akira. They had used to act competitive and abrasive with each other, with Seidou not understanding how he and Akira were even soulmates at all, especially in comparison to his and Amon’s more positive connection.

That had changed with an event that had occurred several years ago, one which Hide himself could vividly remember. The 20th Ward raid. The operation’s aim had been to eradicate a significant ghoul that owned a coffee shop in the ward, and had been the first operation Hide had participated in within communications.

Hide had been a considerable distance away from the centre of it, but it had still been one of the scariest experiences of his life. Seidou, Akira and Amon had been right in the thick of it, and Seidou and Amon had almost died at the scene.

According to Seidou, it had been that night when he realised his soulmate connection with Akira was just as real as his one with Amon.  

Since that night, their relationship had a significant shift, but when Seidou had recovered from his near death and tried to speak to Akira about it, she refused to acknowledge they had a soulmate connection in the first place. Seidou had since left her alone about it, but years later without any change were getting to him more and more.  

So he took it out at Hide in moments such as these, when Hide was trying to have his lunch.

“Did you speak with Amon like I suggested you do before?” Hide asked.

Seidou slumped further in his seat.

“Yes,” he sighed. “But we could only accomplish so much. We’re both in the same position with Akira, but he doesn’t want to start anything with me in the meantime. He doesn’t believe that it’s right for us to start a relationship between us if it doesn’t include Akira as well. He says it should be all soulmates together, or not at all.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. “I can’t be mad at him for that. It’s just like him to think that way.”

“Don’t hate me for bringing this up if you’re really against the idea, but…” Hide paused to think of his next words carefully. “Is being in a relationship with someone else something that you would ever consider?”

Opinions of the nature of soulmates tended to vary, but were generally strong. While there were many who took the tattoos very seriously and believed that people should only be with those whose names were written on their bodies, there were just as many people who felt that the soulmate tattoos were more of a suggestion from the universe rather than an instruction. Many of those who engaged in relationships outside of their soulmates were in similar circumstances to Seidou, where their soulmates didn’t want a romantic relationship despite the connection, or were those who had attempted a relationship with their soulmate but it hadn’t worked out for one reason or another. Others were people whose soulmates had passed away, or people who had waited for their soulmate for so long they had given up. Getting into a relationship with someone who was not his soulmate wasn’t something Hide could see himself going out and doing, no matter how much he longed for someone who he currently did not have, but maybe it was something Seidou would want to do now.

Seidou was silent for a long moment while he looked down at the table and considered this.

“No…” he answered eventually. “That’s not something I want. I don’t want a relationship with someone who is not either of my soulmates.”

“What do you want then?”

“If Akira doesn’t want anything to happen… then I’d just want to know why at least.” Seidou sighed. “If a relationship is something I’m never going to have, then I can have at least that and get some closure, right?”

“Look, I’m not going to involve myself much more than I already have,” Hide said. “But if that’s what you want then,” He gestured. “Your actual soulmate is probably the one to go to.”

Seidou didn’t respond right away, so Hide decided to return to his curry, which was now significantly cooler than when he started.

Seidou slowly stood up from the chair. He made a move to leave, but then turned back to Hide for a moment.

“Thank you, Nagachika,” he said before walking off.

Hide would have appreciated the fact that Seidou had actually acknowledged his assistance a little more had it not been for the lukewarm curry he’d been left with.

He watched the cafeteria as he continued to eat. As much as Hide’s lunch may be neglected whenever Seidou was around, at least it meant he wasn’t on his own. It was quite lonesome at the CCG otherwise. Especially in the cafeteria where there were so few people there that Hide could barely even people-watch either.  

It was then that he spotted a familiar investigator standing around the entrance of the cafeteria.

“Haise!” he called out without thinking, ignoring the investigator sitting at a nearby table who looked at him disapprovingly in response to his sudden raised voice.

Haise turned in surprise, although his expression became that of a smile when he realised who had called out to him. Hide waved him over.

“You don’t usually come down here to the cafeteria, do you?” he said when Haise was close enough to his table. “What are you doing here?”

Haise sat down in the chair across from Hide and placed the cup of coffee he was holding onto the table, tapping on the cup lightly.

Coffee again and it was barely the middle of the day. Either Haise had a caffeine addiction or was more worn out by work than he let on.

“I was actually looking for you,” he said. He bit his lip. “Hide, can I ask for your help with something?”

Hide raised his eyebrows and nodded at Haise to continue.

“You see, the Quinx squad has been assigned a case for a while, but, well…” Haise grimaced. “We’ve been having some trouble pulling the squad together to make significant progress. So I was wondering if you’d be willing to help me with the investigation.”

Working together with Haise on a case. That definitely sounded like something he would be interested in. It’s not like he’d been paying much attention to his own allocated files lately.

“I’m interested,” he answered. “Though, I might have to ask Akira for permission…”

“I already asked just before coming down here,” Haise said. “She said that nothing you’re assigned to is incredibly urgent, so you’re allowed to give me assistance with this case.”

So the files Hide did have were as unimportant as he thought after all.

“Then I’m all set to help,” he said.

“Great,” Haise said with a smile. “I’ll message you once I know when I can go through the case with you.”

Haise made a move to get up from his chair. “Alright, I’ll leave you to the rest of lunch. Sorry for interrupting…”

“Oh no, you weren’t,” Hide said quickly. “You should come down here more often, actually. It’d be nice to have the chance to see each other at work.”

Haise blinked. His eyes drifted to the side and to Hide’s curry briefly before he looked back at Hide.

“Maybe I will,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise it's been a few months since last chapter! I'm sorry! Believe me though, it definitely wasn't forgotten during that time. Between my slow pace and life in general it just took ages to write up completely. But do know that if there's a really long gap between chapters, it definitely doesn't mean I've abandoned! Thank you for bearing with me! 
> 
> You can find me on my tumblr at [hideyoshineki](https://hideyoshineki.tumblr.com/).


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